Advancements in the development of improved signal processing algorithms have resulted in the production of output data with a high output dynamic range (in bits). For example, recently developed adaptive spectral equalization (ASE) and enhanced narrowband processing (ENP) algorithms having increased signal processing data output from a traditional three bits to eight bits. In view of the increased dynamic range of such signal processing algorithms, considerable effort is now being mounted in the development of efficient and effective methods and systems for compressing and expanding data. The key requirements of such compression and expansion systems are: minimal computational horsepower needs; fixed compressed data size for transferring a requisite amount of information; and minimal information loss or generated artifacts resulting from the data compression process. The requirement to minimize the requisite computational horsepower facilitates the use of commercial off-the-shelf computing components, thus reducing system implementation expense by obviating the need for custom hardware to support operational performance requirements. The remaining requirements reflect a balancing of the need to accurately transmit a large amount of information with the need to transmit that information in a minimal amount of space and time.